A popular Internet saying insists, "You can’t buy happiness. But you can buy ice cream. And that’s kind of the same thing."

Perhaps that’s why memories of the Old Barn Milk Bar in Wayne are so mouthwateringly vivid. And why they come in such a variety of flavors: from vanilla, chocolate and strawberry to black raspberry, maple walnut, peanut butter swirl, and dozens of others, served in scoops the size of softballs.

The Old Barn also sold burgers, fries and other light menu items, but ice cream was its star of stars. On warm summer nights, patrons waited on line for a half-hour or more to pick up a cup or a cone to enjoy in the parking lot with family, friends, and sometimes their entire little league team.

Was there a better way to celebrate the thrill of victory? Or lessen the agony of defeat?

Tena Ashby Elman, 51, of North Haledon recalled going all the time as a young girl: "We lived in Hawthorne then, about a 20-minute ride, but worth it. People would hang out there for hours."

Dennis Geer, 54, said his family went to the Old Barn from their home in Union City every Sunday during the 1950s and ’60s – a special treat, he added, because every member of his family enjoyed a different flavor.

Geer’s own favorite: Swiss chocolate almond, although he eventually tried the peanut butter swirl and never looked back. "It became my new favorite," he said.

Karen Dewar, 64, of Wayne, also had her favorites, but said the Old Barn’s allure went beyond its scoops, cones and chocolate chips.

"When you got your driver’s license, it was THE place to hang out," Dewar said. "At the time, I was a student at DePaul High School, and we used to go there after all the local high school football games. The inside of the barn was all dark wood, including the stalls and the tables. There were many, many initials carved in that wood. It was just so charming."

So was the history of the place, beginning with the actual structure. True to its name, the Old Barn was a Dutch timber frame barn, erected in the late 1700s.

In 1930, Olaf Haroldson, a local businessman, bought the building and transformed it into an ice cream shop. But between the Depression-era economy and the gas rationing that continued throughout the war years, Haroldson struggled.

In the mid-1940s, he sold the place to Robert McMinn, a World War II veteran, and within a couple of years, the Old Barn Milk Bar had become a North Jersey institution.

Patrons called it the Milk Bar. Or the Old Barn. Some called it Alderney’s because of the sign out front ("Alderney Milk/Ice Cream") as well as the milk dispensing machine in the parking lot ("Alderney Milk 24 Hour Self-Service").

(The Alderney Dairy Co., founded in 1894 as Newark Milk and Cream Co., became one of the largest dairies in the country by the 1930s, with six plants and more than 800 dairy farms.)

McMinn continued to run the Milk Bar until the 1980s, eventually turning over the reins to his son Joseph and nephew Gerald. They kept it going until December 2001, when Preakness Chevrolet bought the property, only to go out of business a few years later.

But the warm and sometimes funny memories it generated live on. In 1991, Mary Sheehy Connolly, 47, of Ramsey, was in the parking lot having ice cream with other members of the Wayne First Aid Squad, when they received a call about an injury in … the Old Barn parking lot.

"We told the dispatcher, ‘We’re already there!’ Then, took turns wrapping up this man’s injury while holding each other’s cones."

Today, the Old Barn is certainly not forgotten. Nor is it entirely gone.

In 2002, the Wayne Historical Commission raised money to have the barn disassembled, according to commission chairman Bob Monacelli. "All of the pieces are together in one location – we’re not saying where – with the exception of the tables, which were auctioned off after the barn came down," he said.